What would make you stop cheering for a team?

[Blade]

Well, up here in Canada, the Canadian Football League's regular season has started. However, recent events in my city have prompted me to start this thread.

The Edmonton Eskimos Head Coach, Tom Higgens, released one of our top defensive players, Terry Ray. Terry has been a dominating player in the league for years, but he was out and out let go the other day. The reason, according to Higgens, is the import ratio. CFL teams have to maintain a certain number of Canadians per team. Higgens said that there was just no room for Ray...which in my opinion is a load of crap.

This has prompted me to actually not want to watch any of the Eskimos games, live or on TV. I am just wondering, of any of the teams you all out there cheer for, is there a personnel decision that could be made that would end your desire to cheer for that team? I am also a huge Eagles fan, but the loss of Trotter or Douglas never affected me like the dumping of Ray up here...

Good thing I am more of an NFL fan than I am of the CFL...

[Chief Rum]

Abandoning your city is a good reason to stop rooting for a team. I have been abandoned in this manner twice...and in the same year.

CR

[stkelly52]

If the team were to move, I would forever hope that the sit in the mire of mediocrity. I was never a colts fan, nor a browns fan, but to this day I still always hope that they lose. Those are the two teams that even if they were to ask me to take a job with them, I would turn them down (not like any team would want me, but you understand my point).

It always bothers me when teams let go of a great player for monitary reasons, but I at least understand it. I hated to see the Seahawks let go of Cortez Kenedy, and when the Mariners traded Randy Johnson I was very upset. However I understand that it is a business and some times you need to make tought choices to stay competitive.

[TroyF]

I've never abondoned a team 100%. I stopped watching Twins games when I stopped caring about baseball at all. Now that I watch SOME baseball, I still cheer for the team.

If rumors are true, the Nuggets were offered Jay Williams and the #7 pick in the draft for the #3 pick in the draft.

If that is a true story and the Nuggets accept that offer, I will abandone the Nugs until new management comes in. Considering I'm not a huge basketball fan to begin with, it won't be a crushing blow.

TroyF

[Anrhydeddu]

is there a personnel decision that could be made that would end your desire to cheer for that team?

Definitely. It seems that most of the teams that I love and hate are based on personnel. The StL Cards were a favorite team when McGwire was with them and of course, I kept with the Pads for all of TGwynn's career. Likewise, I know hate the Bears (who I had loved in the 1980s) and now can like the Steelers all because of one player. I have loved the Raiders recently (albeit semi-secretly) because of Gruden and Gannon and of course, the Rams because of Warner and Faulk. The Bucs have been interesting when I started to love them when they changed to that great logo and colors and having Alstott. But the addition of Keyshawn and the emergence of Sapp have tempered that quite a bit despite adding Gruden.

[Radii]

Two things really:

1) Your hometown area gets a team. I stopped rooting for the Lakers when the Hornets got a team, and stopped rooting for the Cowboys after the Panthers got a team.

2) Your favorite local team skips town. Again, the Hornets. Luckily I got totally bored with the NBA style of ball a few years ago anyway.

[Franklinnoble]

I've given up on the Orioles now that Cal Ripken is gone - at least until Angelos sells the team and somebody brings back old-school Oriole baseball. In the meantime, I'm a D-Backs fan anyway.

None of my other favorite teams have done anything egregious enough to warrant total abandonment.

[Kodos]

When the most vile coach in NFL history takes over your team and treats your favorite player poorly.

[albionmoonlight]

Leaving a city.

I'm a New Orleans guy and I don't even like the Hornets because they left Charlotte.

[Schmidty]

If Kenyon Martin ever became a Piston, I would be forced to renounce my allegiance to them.

[Samdari]

Hiring Rick Neuheisel

[korme]

i would stop rooting for a team if they moved from their current location.. this only applies to the Bengals and Reds.

[korme]

Originally posted by Schmidty
If Kenyon Martin ever became a Piston, I would be forced to renounce my allegiance to them.

why?

[Buzzbee]

The question:

What would make you stop cheering for a team?

The answer:

Jerry Jones

[klayman]

If my team signed Derian Hatcher in the off season, that would be it. Thankfully there's no chance of that, so I don't have to worry.

[Hawaii Warrior]

The way the Nets played this series... Horrible

[Blade]

Originally posted by stkelly52
It always bothers me when teams let go of a great player for monitary reasons, but I at least understand it. I hated to see the Seahawks let go of Cortez Kenedy, and when the Mariners traded Randy Johnson I was very upset. However I understand that it is a business and some times you need to make tought choices to stay competitive.

At least I could understand it if it was a money thing...that is something I have to live with daily as an Oiler fan.

But Ray getting released had nothing to do with cash. We hardly pay our players up here! Hell, a lot of CFL players have other jobs!

[Schmidty]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
why?

Because he's a chest-thumping lump of shit who acts like everything he does is the greatest thing anyone has ever seen.
Everytime he half rips his shirt off after a dunk, I feel the need to hit him in the head with a baseball bat.

I can't respect players who don't act like they've been there before after a great play.

My favorite types of players are guys like Joe Dumars, Barry Sanders, and Steve Yzerman. When they made great plays, they acted with dignity and grace.

[MrBug708]

Ask the city of Brooklyn

[kcchief19]

I didn't abandon the Royals, but I did boycott their games for two years following the '94 fiasco, in part due to my bitterness over the lost season and part due to the Royals horrible off-season personnel moves (firing McRae and trading Cone, to be specific).

When I was a youth, I lived equidistance from St. Louis and Kansas City and rooted for both teams. Granted, the Royals were No. 1 and the Cards No. 1-A, but I rooted for the Cards in '82 and I was a happy camper in '85.

Until the Series was played, however. The Cardinals horrible behavior in game seven and the general fan base reaction to the series swore me off the Cards forever. I was so ashamed of John Tudor attacking the motorized fan in the dugout, Andujar beating the hell out of a toilet and the team in generally rolling over in the face of diversity.

No doubt the call at first base was a bad call. If any Cardinal fan wants to sit down with me sometime, I will show them why the Cardinals lost and it had nothing to do with the call in game six.

I would NEVER root for the Cardinals again. If the Cardinals and Yankees were playing game seven of the World Series in my back yard, I would walk over to the window and pull down the shade.

[Bishop]

Management is a big part, cause it determines how your favorite players on that team are treated... I use to be a big 49ers fan untill they started shafting all their veteran players even when they still could play.

Plus the way they treated Mooch was kinda crappy, didn't really care for the 9'ers at that point anyway but he had them on his back every year no matter what he did.

[MrBug708]

Originally posted by kcchief19
I didn't abandon the Royals, but I did boycott their games for two years following the '94 fiasco, in part due to my bitterness over the lost season and part due to the Royals horrible off-season personnel moves (firing McRae and trading Cone, to be specific).

What about the RWBL Royals? Shooting for .450

[ahbrady]

The only way I would ever root against the Red Sox would be if Clemens came back to them.

[Noble_Platypus]

Originally posted by stkelly52
If the team were to move, I would forever hope that the sit in the mire of mediocrity. I was never a colts fan, nor a browns fan, but to this day I still always hope that they lose. Those are the two teams that even if they were to ask me to take a job with them, I would turn them down (not like any team would want me, but you understand my point).

It always bothers me when teams let go of a great player for monitary reasons, but I at least understand it. I hated to see the Seahawks let go of Cortez Kenedy, and when the Mariners traded Randy Johnson I was very upset. However I understand that it is a business and some times you need to make tought choices to stay competitive.

So I guess you also must root against the Rams, Titans, Raiders(or do they not count since they moved back?), Cardinals,Lions,Chiefs, and Redskins. All of these teams changed cities at one point in their history. Why is it the Colts and Browns are always bashed for leaving, but none of these other teams are? And not all of these are from way back in the day, some like the Rams and Titans are fairly recent. More so than the Colts.

Also, how can you understand the business of not keeping players like Kennedy or Junior Seau, but not the business of" Hey, nobody is coming out to support us, maybe we should go to a city where they want a team"

[Chief Rum]

As an LA fan, Noble, I too was wondering why the Browns and Colts earned such enmity, but no mention of the LA teams.

I hated the Rams they day they left Orange County, and although I have come to accept them better now, I still hate She Who's Name I Won't Speak, and her lackey John Shaw.

I was never a big Raiders fan, but I hate how so many fans int he LA area still follow the Raiders despite the fact that they teased us by coming here and then abandoned us again. I can never understand why local fans would still follow them.

CR

[Abe Sargent]

I followed baseball and football when i was little. Real little - like 6 and 8. WHen I came back to sports in high school, the teams were all the same. I wanted something new, and both leagues were about to expand. Jacksonville had just had its first game. I chose them because they seemd like underdogs compared to the Panthers. I am still a die-hard Jags fan to this day.

In baseball, Arizona looked better to me than Tampa because it also seemed like an underdog place. You can imagine my wonder and pure joy at seeing my favs beat the Most Hated Team of All Time Yankees.

I retained my young kid fandom of the Jazz and Avalanche.

So, my favs, in order - Jags, D-Backs, Jazz, and Avalanche.



-Anxiety

[WussGawd]

I've never really given up on the team, but I've become mighty frustrated with them. I tend to just turn my fan worship down a few notches with a team that keeps making stupid mistakes, rather than abandon them. However, I can assure you that if one of my favorite sports teams ever left...I'd drop them like a rock. I wouldn't want to be one of these poor souls who still mourn the loss of the Brooklyn Dodgers, or the Cruds' move to Phoenix.

I have to admit that even though I've really wanted to like them, I've never been a big fan of the Arizona Cardinals. I've attended games, I even had season seats one year. I just got tired of watching them make the same offseason mistakes year after year.

[ahbrady]

Originally posted by Schmidty
Because he's a chest-thumping lump of shit who acts like everything he does is the greatest thing anyone has ever seen.
Everytime he half rips his shirt off after a dunk, I feel the need to hit him in the head with a baseball bat.

I can't respect players who don't act like they've been there before after a great play.

My favorite types of players are guys like Joe Dumars, Barry Sanders, and Steve Yzerman. When they made great plays, they acted with dignity and grace.

So, basically you hate all current NBA players?

[mckerney]

Signing Akili Smith.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally posted by Buzzbee
The question:

What would make you stop cheering for a team?

The answer:

Jerry Jones

I've been struggling to decide if the answer for me is Jerry Jones or Bill Parcells.

Either way, I guess I won't be cheering for my 'Boys anytime soon.

[tucker342]

If a team gets rid of a player I really like for no apparent reason, there is no way I would like them nearly as much.

[Fritz]

Jimmy Jones came close...

[stkelly52]

Originally posted by Noble_Platypus
So I guess you also must root against the Rams, Titans, Raiders(or do they not count since they moved back?), Cardinals,Lions,Chiefs, and Redskins. All of these teams changed cities at one point in their history. Why is it the Colts and Browns are always bashed for leaving, but none of these other teams are? And not all of these are from way back in the day, some like the Rams and Titans are fairly recent. More so than the Colts.

Also, how can you understand the business of not keeping players like Kennedy or Junior Seau, but not the business of" Hey, nobody is coming out to support us, maybe we should go to a city where they want a team"

I have only vague recolections of when the Cardinals were not in Arizona, so it never really affected me. Lions, Redskins, Chiefs have not moved in my lifetime, so again that has not affected me.
When the Oilers decided to move I was also upset, and I will also never support the Titans.
The Raiders represent all that is evil. I have dispised them for as long as I can remember. This has nothing to do with them having moved. As a life long Seahawks fan, they have always been the team that I hate.
As for the Rams, It always seemed like they were not supported by their fans (from my perspective as a kid). I remeber it always bothering me that a city like LA wouldn't support their football teams, so I was not upset when they left.

[EagleFan]

Norman Braman almost made me stop cheering for the Eagles but luckily the sale of the team happened.

Bobby Clarke has made me stop caring about the Flyers. He ruined the team his first time around and seems to be intent on keeping them from being a team with a chance to win a Cup. It's the same thing every year. Say how he has changed his philosophy and realizes that speed is needed to win. Followed up by getting players that can skate and then getting them stuck in a system that doesn't allow them to. Then losing patience and dumping them for 'grinders'. That would be like a football team saying they need a quarterback that can really throw and bringing in Marino only to have him run an option offense.

Doh!!! Sorry about the detour I took there.

[Axxon]

I "like" a lot of teams and things mentioned above could change that but in my life I only "have" one team and it's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Yes, I'm from Tampa but that's only part of it. I grew up with the team.

My interest in football started with super bowl IX when the Steelers beat the Vikings. I was hooked from that point. I grew up in a non sports family and I really don't know how I managed to commandeer the tv that day but I did. The Steelers became my "team" and I still have a soft spot in my heart for them.

That year I moved back to my hometown of Tampa and low and behold the talk was on how we had been granted a team of our own!!! I adopted that team and neither wins nor losses mattered. I followed every nugget of information written about them and felt the highs and lows ( oh, the many lows ) for every one of the mostly painful years since. I even remember the race to see which ownership group would get the team and boy I wish there would have been internet those days.

I almost got pneumonia but I was there in '79 when the Rams came to town and 3 kicked their way to the Super Bowl. I picked up seat backs for the privelege of seeing the second half ( cheap bastard Culverhouse wouldn't let us see the whole game, no ) and being basically soaked and freezing but it was worth every heartbreaking minute. I remember heading to the field after we were finished and playing shadow football while we waited for our rides. Yep, I scored more touchdowns than the Bucs that night.

[ snip other nostalgic rantings of an old fart ]

The bottom line is, I don't know what could make me turn on the team. It doesn't seem possible. I said that if the Glazers would have moved the team to Orlando I wouldn't follow them but in my heart I knew I would. After all, I'd just left Tampa the year before so how could I blame them for doing the same thing? I don't want them to move now as has been rumored and I don't think they will but it will be a test. Los Angeles Buccaneers?? Excuse me while I puke but I lived for 4 years in LA myself so again... I'd likely get over even that.


A bad owner wouldn't be enough. I've been a fan when they had possibly the worst owner ever.

Losing a great player for nothing?? Let me tell you about Bo Jackson and Steve Young etc, etc. Wasn't near enough.

I guess I've never encountered anything that would break that allegiance but again, I only know of one team that I can say that about and I am passionate about them.

I type this as I'm wearing a Tampa Bay Buccaneer Super Bowl XXXVII shirt at work but it's really only a coincidence, honest.

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by Bishop
Management is a big part, cause it determines how your favorite players on that team are treated... I use to be a big 49ers fan untill they started shafting all their veteran players even when they still could play.

Plus the way they treated Mooch was kinda crappy, didn't really care for the 9'ers at that point anyway but he had them on his back every year no matter what he did.

Management or coaches for me. I can't even figure out what the Jets are doing this offseason, they've really got me pissed off. I adopted the Texans last year after 3 jets starters went there in the expansion draft, and I've been following them very closely.

[MIJB#19]

Bankrupcy to the end of existence or NFL owners deciding to stop the NFL Europe are the only reasons to stop cheering for "my" teams.
"Forza Utreg" forever.
My cheering for the Admirals will also never stop.

Personally I think it is lame to stop cheering for a team over:
- missmanagement
- popular players leaving the team
- relegation (or in US sports terms, the Yankees not making the playoffs)

[Samdari]

Originally posted by Schmidty
My favorite types of players are guys like Joe Dumars, Barry Sanders, and Steve Yzerman. When they made great plays, they acted with dignity and grace.

Putting Sanders in the same category with Dumars and Yzerman is a crime. Yeah, he did not celebrate wildly when he scored, but he was always far more interested in personal stats and glory than team success. The other guys would do anything required for a win. Sanders basically asked not to get GL carries because they hurt his ypc average.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by Samdari
Putting Sanders in the same category with Dumars and Yzerman is a crime. Yeah, he did not celebrate wildly when he scored, but he was always far more interested in personal stats and glory than team success. The other guys would do anything required for a win. Sanders basically asked not to get GL carries because they hurt his ypc average.

Which of course neatly explains why he retired right on the verge of unsurpassed glory when he was ready to become the leagues all time leading rusher. Oh wait, no it doesn't.

[GrantDawg]

I couldn't possibily stop supprting a team I follow. I could boycott a certain part of the team (like the "MLB on TBS" until they return Skip and Pete), but never could I root against a team I love. If they did something I despised, I would probably lose some interest in the team until they made a change. I could never completely abondon them, though.

[JAG]

I'm originally from Vermont, so I never grew up with hometown teams. Sure, there were some adopted local teams, but the paper basically provided more coverage to whatever local team was more successful at the time. I came to like the Cowboys because they were always on tv, the Celtics because of Larry Bird, and the Mets because my brother liked them.

Although I've been watching pretty much all three teams make some highly questionable personnel and coaching hires these past 10 years, I can't think of anything that would make me give up my loyalty to these teams. The most depressing thing that could happen is to have an owner that really didn't want to or care about winning, but even then I could still pull for one of the teams to win in spite of the owner (a la Major League).

JAG

[gstelmack]

As a diehard Patriots fan from when I was a young tot and a diehard Buccaneers fan from when I moved to Florida, it would be hard to make me give up on a team. The Carolina Cobras of the AFL managed it, though.

I love Arena Football, and used to watch Jay Gruden throw long bombs to Stevie Thomas all game long back when the Storm played in the Suncoast Dome. Then I moved to North Carolina, and we got our own team. I immediately bought season tickets and had them for all 3 seasons they were here.

First season was typical expansion, but the guys played their hearts out and were fun to watch. If he hadn't blown his knee out, Mario Greer (ex-Patriot!) was on his way to setting a ton of rushing records. They picked up Fred McNair at QB and started to gain some steam for season 2.

Season 2 almost had me give up on Arena Football altogether. The officiating was just down-right abysmal. Every Arena game is close (barring a really horrible team playing...), so each blown officiating call is magnified. The 1-second kickoff return in Tampa, blown pass interference calls all day long, and the end result was 3 games taken away from Carolina during the season that cost us a home playoff game.

Then our coach up and quits right at the end of the season, his offensive coordinator takes over, and he turns over almost the entire roster before the next year. Nothing quite like dropping $200 at a silent auction for your favorite player's jersey only to have him go to Buffalo the next season... So now we don't know who to root for, the officiating still sucks, we stick by them, and they up and leave for Charlotte. Once they get to Charlotte, they turn over the entire team (maybe one player left) and get a new coach.

So basically, when you start rooting for a team and over the course of a season the entire team changes, that'll get me to dump you.

MLB and the NBA have managed to get me to stop caring about an entire sport (what a bunch of spoiled, whiny brats playing in those two leagues...), although I still pull for the Celtics and Red Sox way deep down. The NHL has slid into my number 2 sport now.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally posted by Samdari
Putting Sanders in the same category with Dumars and Yzerman is a crime. Yeah, he did not celebrate wildly when he scored, but he was always far more interested in personal stats and glory than team success. The other guys would do anything required for a win. Sanders basically asked not to get GL carries because they hurt his ypc average.

I agree with Axxon. I really don't think this is true. The problem with Barry wasn't that he was more interested in personal states and glory than team success. It was that he just wasn't really all that interested in football at all. This could because of years of quietly suffering under the Wayne Fontes regime or the shame of the wearing the Honolulu Blue and Silver each weekend or the Bobby Ross years or, perhaps, just his pyschological make-up. Maybe he just wasn't a competitor. I recall seeing Barry get fired up once. One time in the 10 years in Detroit. Not that there have too many legitimate opportunities to get "fire up" while playing for the Lions in, say, oh, the last 40+ years, but there were a handful moments during his stay. He just never really seemed to care. Like Axxon pointed out, the best example of this is him walking away the year before the all-time leading rushing record was assured to be his. Just. didn't. care.

[Axxon]

Hey Honolulu_Blue thanks for giving my thoughts words man. You elaborated my feelings way better than I did. Thanks for that and I agree with your take 100%.

[ice4277]

Seeing mr. buttercup's assinine posts about the Pistons almost made me start hating them.

[PilotMan]

I would have to walk away from my teams if they ever changed their name to the Bengals.

[FrogMan]

I know I'm coming sort of late to the thread and many of you have expressed the same feelings, but how about the team you grew up with, going as far back as the World Hockey Association, your favorite team moves away, say from Quebec City to Colorado, changes its name from the Nordiques to the Avalanche, and to top it off, wins the Stanley Cup the first year after they've moved, after being the lowest of lowest teams for about 6-7 years...

Yeah, that did it for me... Not only the team, the whole sport. I can barely watch hockey anymore...

FM

[PSUColonel]

let's put it this way, I used to be a Cowboys fan.

[KWhit]

I'm a big fan of all the Atlanta teams. The only way I would root against one of them is if they brought in someone I have no respect for like Sosa, Clemens, Randy Moss, or Latrell Sprewell, etc.

Oh, I did root against the Hawks this year after they made their playoff guarantee and always announced the team as "Your Playoff-Bound Atlanta Hawks". They kept doing this even though they were well below .500 late in the season. That was pretty funny.

[scooper]

I am a Bengals fan.

Still


Obviously, nothing can make me stop cheering for a team.